Happy New Year. May this new year bring us the wisdom and humanity to make the world around us a better place for us and our children.

My first post on this blog was on January 3rd 2006. On this first anniversary, I want to thank you, my readers for your encouragement. That there are people out there who come back to read what I write, after having read something before on the blog and then deciding that it was worth visiting again, is quite humbling.

I would love to get some feedback. Topics, style, comments, blogsite – anything that you think could improve your experience. I have recently added some things. You can get an RSS feed of course, but you can also get the posts via email. I have been getting better about responding to comments, but perhaps I will never be as prompt and prolific as professional bloggers.

You say: ” I have been getting better about responding to comments, but perhaps I will never be as prompt and prolific as professional bloggers.”

Most bloggers writing great blogs are not ‘professional bloggers’, and that includes me. Most of us who write popular blogs (and even mine is more popular than yours going by comments and links and technorati rating) write the blog as though we were professionals. That is a subtle difference in attitude and approach, not our paid or professional statuses.

We post opinions and commentary and get a wide range of opinions which allow us to validate what we write. We have large numbers of readers and a large number of comments. We write blogs related to our work or profession because that dialogue improves our work and us professionally. We write with passion and interest and oftener than the muse strikes.

The biggest reason for such popularity? We respond. To all comments, even those we disagree with. And promptly and often.

A blogger who does not care to respond to comments deservedly gets few readers. If your blog is a hobby-horse, then smart readers figure that quickly and do not return. (I read your blog after an ex-subordinate and direct report of yours told me about you and that you were from IIMA, as I am, but I have been disappointed.. sorry.)

If a job is worth doing, it is worth doing well. That goes for blogging too. Else there is a potent English word that explains much – jobsworth.

I am a journalist with CyberMedia News, Bangalore. I am doing a story on the level of blogging among CEOs and senior executives.
Blogging activity seems to be very low among corporates in India despite the tremendous potential it carries. I must congratulate you on being one among the rare breed.:-)

Could you pass on your email address so that I could post some questions to you?

It the first time , I have responded to any blog in my life , I was directed to your blog , by a friend of mine and have gone thru many of your posts . As you may know i live in Navi Mumbai , actually bought a place in 2005 and moved in and really resonate with your view of Navi Mumbai . It was really nice to read about your posts on the economy and the Flat World , i have some ideas on how learning can be flattened and some of it is already happening , will share with you in person when you are next in Mumbai